The MGM-140 ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) has entered combat, again.  This time, the ATACMS is making its first visitation in Ukraine.  This is moreover the first use of this missile by a foreign military.  The U.S. has fired over 600 ATACMS during gainsay operations.

The ATACMS has a long and ramified history.  Originally, this missile was intended for use on the Soviets, attacking large tank concentrations, as well as writ and tenancy centers.  The ATACMS never saw gainsay versus the Soviets, but it did participate in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Early on in the war with Russia, the Ukrainian government had asked for ATACMS, to uplift its battleground support sufficiency and offset the lack of sufficient strike aircraft.  The U.S. was reluctant to provide these missiles, fearing they might be used versus targets inside Russian territory.

Eventually, Washington relented and provided an undisclosed number of ATACMS to Ukraine.  The spoken targets were a pair of Russian air bases.

Will the ATACMS transpiration the undertow of the Russo-Ukrainian War?  Probably not.  But the missile will make it increasingly difficult for Russia to resupply its troops in occupied Ukraine.  Each new weapon provided is flipside chess piece moving virtually on the board.  Long-range artillery was once causing Russian logisticians problems and the ATACMS will complicate their difficulties further.

Airpower did not defeat the Germans in World War II.  A combination of airpower, land attacks, naval operations, and economic warfare slowly eroded the German Wehrmacht’s worthiness to resist.  ATACMS is flipside ways to wear lanugo the Russian troops fighting in the Ukraine.